"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is known to have executed or fired some military officers and government officials for committing immoral acts during the mourning period of his father Kim Jong-il."
Source: KBS World

"Chinese authorities have arrested 10 North Korean defectors and their guide, sparking fears that they could face persecution and even execution back home if repatriated, according to a source who assists refugees in China."
Source: Radio Free Asia

"China has repatriated all 31 North Korean refugees it arrested last month despite international pressure against the move, activists said Friday, warning they could face severe punishment."
Source: Agence France-Presse

"The country’s progressive academics, often seen as reluctant to criticize the North Korean regime and its ally China, appear to be joining the cause to stop China from repatriating North Korean defectors."
Source: The Korea Herald

"As pressure rises over the repatriation of North Korean defectors in China, others who have previously crossed the border into the South told the Korea JoongAng Daily that the defectors stand a high chance of being killed if they are sent back."
Source: Korea JoongAng Daily

Nine North Korean defectors who were detained in China were repatriated to their homeland over the weekend as South Korea ratcheted up pressure on China not to send North Korean defectors to their communist country, informed sources said Thursday.
Source: The Korea Herald

Thirty-tree North Korean defectors have been caught by the Chinese Public Security Ministry and reportedly face repatriation.
This is the first time that such defectors have been arrested en masse in China after Pyongyang openly threatened to kill three generations of the family of a defector following the inauguration of new leader Kim Jong Un.
Source: The Dong-A Ilbo

Major structures built to promote the personality cult of North Korea's Kim dynasty have been damaged as isolated pockets of resistance begin to grow, according to reports. A statue of Kim Jong-suk, former leader Kim Jong-il's mother, in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province was damaged in October and a monument in Pyongyang was destroyed in April last year.
Source: The Chosun Ilbo

The new leadership in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was on Friday urged to address pressing human
rights concerns and resolve long-standing issues, including the abduction of Japanese and other foreign nationals, by the UN’s
independent expert on human rights in the country.
Source: United Nations Human Rights

Dozens of international rights groups urged North Korea's new leader in an open letter released on Monday to improve human rights in the isolated state and build a different legacy than his late father.
The International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea called on Kim Jong-Un to change course and curb abuses, after he was proclaimed "great successor" to longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il, who died on December 17.
In a statement signed by 39 campaigners, including Amnesty International, the coalition said over 200,000 men, women and children are held in North Korean prisons and labour camps, mostly for political reasons or because they are related to an offender.
Source: Agence France-Press

Christian groups are among the signatories of an open letter to the new North Korean leader appealing for an end to human rights abuses in the country.
The letter says that the 24.5 million people in North Korea are “living in fear” of arbitrary detention, disappearance, torture or death.
The groups condemn the decades-long mistreatment of North Koreans at the hands of the regime, including the detention of an estimated 200,000 men, women and children for political reasons in prison or labour camps.
Source: Christian Today

"Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.
Kim's death was announced Monday by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media."
Source: Associated Press